Generally, black-and-white silver halide photographic materials are processed through development, fixing, rinsing and drying stages after imagewise exposure to light. At present, most are processed with an automatic processor. Usually, the photographic materials are processed while the automatic processor is replenished with a given amount of the developing solution and a given amount of the fixing solution in proportion to the processed area of the photographic material. There is a demand for stable processing performance when such processing as described above is carried out. Furthermore, there is a demand for good processing performance and improved fixing property while further reducing the amounts of replenisher per unit area of the photographic material processed. Generally, at least 250 ml, particularly preferably at least 330 ml of each of the developing replenisher and the fixing replenisher have been conventionally used per m.sup.2 processed of a sheet-form photographic material such as an X-ray photographic material or a graphic arts photographic material.
However, since the waste liquors of the developing solutions and the fixing solutions have high chemical oxygen demand (COD) or high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), the developing waste liquor and the fixing waste liquor are chemically or biochemically treated to render them harmless, and the waste liquors are then discarded. The disposal of such waste liquors is expensive. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a processing method which enables the replenishment rates of the developing solution and the fixing solution to be reduced even further.